outside

plural outsides · alternative obsolete owtside

1. The part of something that faces out; the outer surface.

   He's repainting the outside of his house.

   4 more examples

   Silenes of old swere little boxes, like those we now may see in the shops of apothecaries, painted on the outside with wanton toyish figures, as harpies, satyrs, bridled geese, horned hares, saddled ducks, flying goats, thiller harts, and other such-like counterfeited pictures at discretion, ...

   1653, François Rabelais, “The Author's Prologue to the First Book”, in Thomas Urquhart, transl., Gargantua

   The outside of the building gives no valuable clew.

   1890, Jacob A[ugust] Riis, “The Common Herd”, in How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 159

   The number of persons which the cab is licensed to carry must be painted at the back on the outside.

   1911, Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Cab

   Third-class carriages are grossly overcrowded, with passengers lying on the luggage racks, standing between the benches, and occasionally even riding on the footboards and clinging to the outsides of the coaches for short distances.

   1950 February, W. Dendy, “Impressions of the Indian Railways—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 120

2. The external appearance of someone or something.

   Her outside was stern, but inside was a heart of gold.

3. The space beyond some limit or boundary.

   Viewed from the outside, the building seemed unremarkable.

   3 more examples

   I in great Transport threw open the Door of my Chamber, and found the greatest Part of the Family standing on the Outside in a very great Consternation

   1714 August 16 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, August 6, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 577; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume VI, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

   Have you seen my wife, Mr Jones?,Do you know what it's like on the outside?

   1967, The Bee Gees, New York Mining Disaster 1941

   Four buffalo gals go 'round the outside 'Round the outside 'Round the outside Four buffalo gals go 'round the outside And do-si-do your partners.

   1982, Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, Malcolm Mclaren, Buffalo Gals

4. The furthest limit, as to number, quantity, extent, etc.

   It may last a week at the outside.

5. The part of a road towards the central division: towards the right if one drives on the left, or towards the left if one drives on the right.

   On a motorway, you should always overtake other vehicles on the outside.

6. The side of a curved road, racetrack etc. that has the longer arc length; the side of a racetrack furthest from the interior of the course or some other point of reference.

   On the final bend, the second-place car tried to go around the outside of the leader but spun off into the barrier.

7. hobbiesThe outer part of the sea, away from the peak of a wave.

   When a wave mounds on the outside and takes its shape, a surfer quickly paddles to the peak, positions himself in its evolving momentum, swings his board around, aligns with the peak, and thrusts himself into its cascading shape.

   2011, Rick Hansen, Leadership and The Art of Surfing, page xi

8. UKcolloquialdatedA passenger riding on the outside of a coach or carriage.

   The outsides did as outsides always do. They were very cheerful and talkative at the beginning of every stage, and very dismal and sleepy in the middle[…]

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC

comparative more outside · superlative most outside · alternative obsolete owtside

1. Of or pertaining to the outer surface, limit or boundary.

   The outside surface looks good.

   2 more examples

   Household drudgery, wood-cutting, milking, and gardening soon roughen the hands and dim the outside polish.

   1901, Miles Franklin, “Disjointed Sketches and Grumbles”, in My Brilliant Career, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 25

   The tyres, which come from the steel manufacturers, are rolled without weld. They are bored inside to an internal diameter slightly less than the outside diameter of the wheel centre, on to which they have to be shrunk, the allowance being about ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of the diameter of the wheel centre.

   1921, Ernest Leopold Ahrons, Steam Locomotive Construction and Maintenance

2. Of, pertaining to or originating from beyond the outer surface, limit or boundary.

   1938 (believed written c.1933), H. P. Lovecraft, The Book, Dogs had a fear of me, for they felt the outside shadow which never left my side.

   2 more examples

   It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition.

   1976, Helen Schucman, A Course in Miracles

   Nor did they consult with outside persons in religious studies, sociology of religion, or psychology of religion.

   1993 September 3, Nancy Tatom Ammerman, Report to the Justice and Treasury Departments regarding law enforcement interaction with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas

3. Away from the interior or center of something.

   As the centripetal force is an inverse function of the radius of the curve, it follows that the runner in the outside lane will be less affected than the runner in the inside lane.

   2003, Timothy Noakes, Lore of Running, Human Kinetics, →ISBN, page 731

   1 more example

   I don't want to take up your time with outside details so I will only say that about two years ago I had an opportunity of acquiring a share in a very promising claim—gold, you understand, both reef and alluvial.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

4. Originating from, arranged by, or being someone outside an organization, group, etc.

   The Board did not trust outside information about their rivals.

   1 more example

   Positions in organizations are being vacated continually through death and retirement, promotion and demotion. Replacements may be drawn from the outside ("an outside man") or from within the organization.

   1968, Barney G. Glaser, Organizational Careers, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 23

5. Extending or going beyond the borders or scope of an organization, group, etc.

   Although a marriage to "one of ours" was encouraged, an outside marriage was not condemned if it would be to a believer of a similar faith. Some of the immigrants' children married Australians and joined Australian Churches.

   2004, Viktor Zander, Identity and Marginality among New Australians: Religion and Ethnicity in Victoria's Slavic Baptist Community, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 88

6. ball gamesAway (far) from the batter as it crosses home plate.

   The first pitch is ... just a bit outside.

7. Reaching the extreme or farthest limit, as to extent, quantity, etc; maximum.

   an outside estimate

8. UKPositioned towards the central division of a road: towards the right-hand side if one drives on the left, or left-hand side if one drives on the right.

   the outside lane of the motorway

9. USPositioned towards the shoulder of a road: towards the left-hand side if one drives on the left, or right-hand side if one drives on the right.

   the outside lane of the highway

10. Not legally married to or related to (e.g. not born in wedlock to), and/or not residing with, a specified other person (parent, child, or partner); (of a marriage, relationship, etc) existing between two such people. (Compare out of wedlock, nonresidential.)

    A husband will thus have responsibilities to his own household, as well as to those in which his “outside” children reside.

    2013, John C.S. Fray, Janice G Douglas, Pathophysiology of Hypertension in Blacks, Springer, →ISBN, page 78

    4 more examples

    Isaac Nathan's Christian wife served as godmother to his outside son, born after their Christian marriage. She allowed the boy, but not his mother, to live with her, her husband, and their two children.

    1994, Caroline H. Bledsoe, Gilles Pison, Nuptiality in Sub-Saharan Africa: contemporary anthropological and demographic perspectives, Oxford University Press, USA

    An 'outside wife' has limited social recognition and status because her husband typically refuses to declare her publicly as his wife. She also has much less social and politico-jural recognition than an 'inside wife' [...]

    2008, Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 158

    The legitimacy and inheritance rights of children were questionable, because colonial law did not acknowledge the validity of an outside marriage contracted after a monogamous, Christian one.

    2009, Marjorie Keniston McIntosh, Yoruba women, work, and social change (Indiana Univ. Pr.)

    The latter is her “outside” child in reference to her conjugal tie at the time. Should she leave this man and move in again with the father of her first child, then the three younger children assume the place of “outside” children, [...]

    2014, Mary Jo Maynes, Ann Waltner, Birgitte Soland, Gender, Kinship and Power, page 256

    Antonyms: inside

comparative more outside · superlative most outside · alternative obsolete owtside

1. To or in the outdoors or outside; to or in an area that is beyond the scope, limits, or borders of a given place.

   I am going outside.

   2 more examples

   Residents of the city rarely ventured outside.

   Jurgis waited outside and walked home with Marija.

   1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXVIII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC

   1. colloquialNot in prison.

      It is the prison that supports the image of the criminal […] he's lost when he's outside.

      1964, Merfyn Turner, A Pretty Sort of Prison, page 15

   2. hobbiesBeyond the breaking waves.

      Taking off outside in the green.

      1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer

2. Outdoors.

   I slept outside last night.

   2 more examples

   Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Harry and David spent most of their childhood outside, developing an intimate knowledge of the animals, waterways, and plant life of Mid Wales.

   2026 May 28, Cyrus Dunham, “Nature's Way”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, page 106

alternative obsolete owtside

1. On the outside of, not inside (something, such as a building).

   Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.

   1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii

   2 more examples

   1919 June 28, the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, Treaty of Versailles, Part IV—German Rights and Interests outside Germany, In territory outside her European frontiers as fixed by the present Treaty, Germany renounces all rights, titles and privileges whatever in or over territory which belonged to her or to her allies, and all rights, titles and privileges whatever their origin which she held as against the Allied and Associated Powers.

   There is jurisdiction over an offense under section 601 committed outside the United States if the individual committing the offense is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (as defined in section 101(a)(20) of the Immigration and Nationality Act).

   1982, 97th Congress of the United States, Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982

   Synonyms: without

2. Beyond the scope, limits, or borders of.

   tourists from outside the country

3. Near, but not in.

   Jane Green […] lives outside New York City with her husband and children.

   2002, Jane Green, Bookends, 2003 trade paperback edition, outside back cover

   2 more examples

   Up the hill Richmond town was burning briskly; outside the town of Richmond there was no trace of the Black Smoke.

   1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

   Kastner lives in University City with his wife, Leslie Cohen, who works for the Jewish Federation, and their 17-month-old old son. Kastner grew up outside Cleveland.

   2010 December, Patricia Corrigan, "Beyond Congregations", OY! (magazine section), St. Louis Jewish Light, volume 63, number 50, page 24

4. usuallyExcept, apart from.

   Outside of winning the lottery, the only way to succeed is through many years of hard work.

present singular third person outsides · participle present outsiding · participle past outsided · past outsided · alternative obsolete owtside

1. transitiveTo ostracize or exclude.

   While the queer subject is outsided by the norm of reproductive heterosexuality, it feels its material effects and affects, even embodies this outsided-ness; […]

   2018, Shraddha Chatterjee, Queer Politics in India: Towards Sexual Subaltern Subjects

   1 more example

   Alison affirms that the kingdom of God does not rely on the sort of “outsiding” that most people find necessary to affirm identity. Keenan, echoing this claim, writes, “While the rest of humanity finds its identity in excluding, Jesus works for a sense of inclusiveness that defines him and, hopefully, us.”

   2010, Julie Hanlon Rubio, Family Ethics: Practices for Christians, page 153

1. USslangAlaskaThe United States excluding Alaska, (especially) the contiguous 48 states south of Canada.

   She's going Outside for Christmas.

   2 more examples

   'When did you leave the Outside?' asked a blue-eyed, blonde, shaggy man. (The Outside means anywhere but Alaska—a man who has been long in the country falls into the idea of considering himself in a kind of a prison, and refers to the rest of the world as lying beyond the door of this.)

   1900, Josiah Edward Spurr, Through The Yukon Gold Diggings, page 156

   Fairbanks North Star Borough school board candidate Michael Humphrey attempted to import one of the most distasteful elements of the Outside culture wars into Fairbanks on Saturday through his deployment of hate speech targeting transgender children.

   2023 July 19, Sine Anahita, “Political float has no place in parade”, in Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Letters to the editor

   Synonyms: the lower 48, United States